France in the 19th Century

Madame de Plume · Mar 21, 2014

My novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars and I'm looking for some good resources regarding French life in the early 19th century. Specifically I'm looking for information regarding social structure, religion, fashion, transportation, food and agriculture, and day-to-day life for those living inside of Paris as well as country life outside of the bigger cities. Any suggestions would be wonderful. I have checked out the resource thread and there is a lot of info about Great Britain in the 19th century, but very little on France.

Torgo · Mar 21, 2014

Madame de Plume said:
My novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars and I'm looking for some good resources regarding French life in the early 19th century. Specifically I'm looking for information regarding social structure, religion, fashion, transportation, food and agriculture, and day-to-day life for those living inside of Paris as well as country life outside of the bigger cities. Any suggestions would be wonderful. I have checked out the resource thread and there is a lot of info about Great Britain in the 19th century, but very little on France.

Have you read any contemporary fiction? Stendhal, Balzac? Hugo, Dumas and Sand are a bit later than you're after, but probably still relevant in many ways.

Alessandra Kelley · Mar 21, 2014

The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815 edited by Katell le Bourhis is a magnificent catalogue with essays of an exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It covers some, but not all, of what you're looking for.

Here's an online facsimile of an 1828 book of travel instructions for English people visiting "the continent." https://archive.org/details/informationandd01stargoog

Here's Casanova's account of a journey to Paris in the eighteenth century. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2956/pg2956.html

Poking around, I found the Time-Life book, What Life Was Like During the Age of Reason: France AD 1660-1800, which might be worth looking up. There's another book in the series, What Life Was Like in Europe's Romantic Era: Ad 1789-1848, but I can't tell if it focuses on France. On the other hand, both of them can be got secondhand for less than a dollar.

Madame de Plume · Mar 21, 2014

Torgo said:
Have you read any contemporary fiction? Stendhal, Balzac? Hugo, Dumas and Sand are a bit later than you're after, but probably still relevant in many ways.

Torgo I have read Hugo and Dumas, but not Stendhal or Balzac. Thank you for the suggestion.

Madame de Plume · Mar 21, 2014

Alessandra Kelley said:
The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815 edited by Katell le Bourhis is a magnificent catalogue with essays of an exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It covers some, but not all, of what you're looking for.

Here's an online facsimile of an 1828 book of travel instructions for English people visiting "the continent." https://archive.org/details/informationandd01stargoog

Here's Casanova's account of a journey to Paris in the eighteenth century. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2956/pg2956.html

Poking around, I found the Time-Life book, What Life Was Like During the Age of Reason: France AD 1660-1800, which might be worth looking up. There's another book in the series, What Life Was Like in Europe's Romantic Era: Ad 1789-1848, but I can't tell if it focuses on France. On the other hand, both of them can be got secondhand for less than a dollar.

Alessandra these are all wonderful. I'm really hoping that my library will be able to get me a copy of The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815. That sounds exactly like what I need. Thank you so much for the links as well.

Madame de Plume · Mar 24, 2014

Alessandra Kelley said:
Poking around, I found the Time-Life book, What Life Was Like During the Age of Reason: France AD 1660-1800, which might be worth looking up. There's another book in the series, What Life Was Like in Europe's Romantic Era: Ad 1789-1848, but I can't tell if it focuses on France. On the other hand, both of them can be got secondhand for less than a dollar.

Alessandra where were you finding these two books secondhand?

Madame de Plume · Apr 7, 2014

Alessandra Kelley said:
The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815 edited by Katell le Bourhis is a magnificent catalogue with essays of an exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It covers some, but not all, of what you're looking for.

Alessandra you are amazing and I just found where I can read this entire book online for free! I am so excited. Thank you!

snafu1056 · Apr 7, 2014

http://books.google.com/books?id=x_EJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA7&focus=viewport&dq=france&output=html

Google books has tons of old period books lying around. Lots of useful stuff if you have the patience to dig through it all. Here's one travel journal from the 1820s called 800 miles through France (written in English)

Madame de Plume · Apr 7, 2014

snafu1056 said:
http://books.google.com/books?id=x_EJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA7&focus=viewport&dq=france&output=html

Google books has tons of old period books lying around. Lots of useful stuff if you have the patience to dig through it all. Here's one travel journal from the 1820s called 800 miles through France (written in English)

Wow those will be great resources. Thank you so much! I'm just starting to realize what a great resource google is for old documents like these.

leocrow · Apr 18, 2014

Here is the reproduced text of a wonderful book series called "Daily life in...". I use it for my own WIP (victorian england for my part). Those books are a real gold mine. They cover all the main areas of a given period: politic, society, family, religion, fashion etc... I saw one existed for the 1st empire period but apparently, it does not anymore... Anyway, i found the transcription. The presentation is quite awful but hey, it's free ^^

http://archive.org/stream/dailylifeinfranc010405mbp/dailylifeinfranc010405mbp_djvu.txt

Of course, if you read French, I have other references in mind

Alessandra Kelley · Apr 18, 2014

Madame de Plume said:
Alessandra where were you finding these two books secondhand?

Poking around alibris.com, an excellent secondhand book resource.

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?b...D+1660-1800&mtype=B&hs.x=42&hs.y=22&hs=Submit

(Sorry for the lateness of this reply)

Madame de Plume · Apr 24, 2014

Alessandra Kelley said:
Poking around alibris.com, an excellent secondhand book resource.

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?b...D+1660-1800&mtype=B&hs.x=42&hs.y=22&hs=Submit

(Sorry for the lateness of this reply)

This is great! Thank you so much. I had never heard of them before.

Madame de Plume · Apr 24, 2014

leocrow said:
Here is the reproduced text of a wonderful book series called "Daily life in...". I use it for my own WIP (victorian england for my part). Those books are a real gold mine. They cover all the main areas of a given period: politic, society, family, religion, fashion etc... I saw one existed for the 1st empire period but apparently, it does not anymore... Anyway, i found the transcription. The presentation is quite awful but hey, it's free ^^

http://archive.org/stream/dailylifeinfranc010405mbp/dailylifeinfranc010405mbp_djvu.txt

Of course, if you read French, I have other references in mind

Thank you so much for the link. I do read French, but I need to brush up some. I would love other references if you have them.

benbenberi · Apr 24, 2014

If you're ok with French, how about La Vie des Francais au temps de Napoleon (used copies at Amazon.Fr) or the somewhat older La Vie Quotidienne au temps de Napoleon (also available used at Amazon.fr)?

leocrow · Apr 28, 2014

Madame de Plume said:
Thank you so much for the link. I do read French, but I need to brush up some. I would love other references if you have them.

For now I can think of a good specialist of Napoleon called Jean Tulard who wrote "Les Français sous Napoléon".
Give also a look at TV documentaries, there are a lot about the guy, I can tell you! Sometimes it's good to have visual info (well, I find it helpful

)

France in the 19th Century

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

snafu1056

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

leocrow

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

Madame de Plume

Writing my way up the social ladder

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW

leocrow